How Canadian Figure Skaters Stack Up for the Grand Prix Season

Interesting analysis. I don't think this is going to be terribly hard to predict, although there are always surprises on the GP.

Despite a disasterous Japan Open, I'm sure Patrick will win at least one of his GP's, likely both, so that will be a trip to the final for him. Other than him, I think Kevin Reynolds might be able to squeak out a medal at one of his events, but I'm not holding my breath for that. I suspect the others will preform admirably, but I don't see anyone skilled enough to reach a podium.

As for the ladies, we basically don't even have spots this season, so I'm expecting another dissapointing one. That being said, I am super impressed by Kaetlyn Osmond, and I think she can make a statement at her event, Skate Canada.

In pairs, both Duhamel/Radford and Moore-Towers/Moscovitch have new programs that look like winners to me, so I wouldn't be surprised to see multiple medals from both teams. Lawrence/Swiegers could surprise at one of their events as well.

In dance, I think we can count on two golds from Virtue/Moir, and at the least two silvers from W/P (who's new material is gorgeous). Other than that, I don't think Gilles/Poirier are skilled enough to reach the podium in there events (sorry, not a fan), and Ralph/Hill have looked pretty all over the place this season (their FD is a hot mess), so I'm not expecting much from them this season (dissappointing, because they made such strides last year). Notably absent will be Paul/Islam (that one's Skate Canada's doing, since they chose not to give them the host pick to SC), who after a disastrous season last year (major injury troubles), seem to have recovered well and have been seeing good results at their senior B's.

Luckily the author of this fluff piece consulted Michael Slipchuk for the official Skate Canada analysis. If we're medal counters, we must consider ice-dance the most thrilling event, because unlike our other well-ordered disciplines we actually have two medal contenders. I am not too upset that that the host pick went to Ralph/Hill, who got to worlds for the first time last year and were not disgraced. It does seem rather rude that Orford/Williams, who have two GP's this season, neither of them a host pick, do not rate a mention. Probably that's because, through the vagaries of Canadian judging, they are not members of Team Canada. On the world scene they were our only team, after V/M and W/P to earn a GP assignment. How embarrassing! Let's just pretend they don't exist.

Luckily the author of this fluff piece consulted Michael Slipchuk for the official Skate Canada analysis. If we're medal counters, we must consider ice-dance the most thrilling event, because unlike our other well-ordered disciplines we actually have two medal contenders. I am not too upset that that the host pick went to Ralph/Hill, who got to worlds for the first time last year and were not disgraced. It does seem rather rude that Orford/Williams, who have two GP's this season, neither of them a host pick, do not rate a mention. Probably that's because, through the vagaries of Canadian judging, they are not members of Team Canada. On the world scene they were our only team, after V/M and W/P to earn a GP assignment. How embarrassing! Let's just pretend they don't exist.

I think we also need to consider that O/W "earned" their spot based on their results from the junior circuit, not the senior one. Last season, Ralph/Hill were only given one GP assignment, Paul/Islam only finished one (an accident at NHK forced them out before the FD), and Gilles & Poirier weren't allowed to compete at all. It's kinda hard to earn enough points to qualify for the GP circuit when you don't get the chance to compete enough to have the chance to. In fact, we should be keeping in mind that Ralph/Hill, arguably the weakest team in the trio I just mentioned, are ranked 12th in the world. That's a result that Orford/Williams would not have been able to achieve, in spite of earning their two GP assignments. No disrespect to them, since they're a great young team, but the other three (who are going to be the three fighting for the worlds spot) have nothing to be embarrased about.

Of course G/P , P/I and R/H have nothing to be embarrassed about (I don't think slipslidin' was suggesting that..) , but the article in question is supposed to be assessing our Grand Prix chances ... In the other disciplines , our lower ranked competitors on the GP are mentioned .. but not O/W, though they did manage to earn 2 spots . E.g: How is Elladj (love the guy) deserving of mention , while they are not ?

And since they did beat R/H in the FD at Canadians last year, I think they shouldn't be left out of the mix at this stage , because their 2 assignments are late in the GP, and we've yet to see how they'll score.

R/H were 13th at last year's World's ... but their current world ranking is #27 with 1118 points, while O/W are #28 with 1117 points , which should be too close for absolute comfort ..P/I are currently ranked #22 with 1280 points . This is still ,in part , due to their Junior results , so I don't think we should write off O/W's Jr. results as inconsequential.

There's no use getting into coulda, woulda , shoulda ... all these teams have to wrestle with their respective positions... Well ,last year, I don't think G/P had to wrestle quite as hard as they should have , but I'm hoping there will be a fresh start this year.

My own handicapping outside of the GP ( based in part on material , potential and my own preference in style) would have P/I slightly ahead in the pack of four..but sadly ,they aren't on the GP.. that will have to be tested at Canadians .

Sorry, my own crystal ball seems to be clouded. It cannot, before the season has begun, tell me who will be fighting for the third spot on the 2013 world team. It turns black when I ask how people would have done, if they had been able to compete. I'm afraid we'll just have to deal with the facts as they stand. Orford and Williams were sent to Junior worlds, where they did not place thirteenth. We must all be hoping to see this decided by fairly judged competitions. For the record I meant that Skate Canada should be embarrassed by the situation, it was not so very long ago, when we saw Mr.Slipchuk touting C/P as Canada's hope in the absence of V/M and failing to mention W/P who were in the same competition. At that season's Worlds we saw W/P finish five places above C/P. Those who do not learn from the past may very well see it repeated.

ETA: All else aside, don't you think all the ice dancers with GP assignments should have been mentioned in this article? Especially the only ones to have earned enough points?

When it comes to SC and the media in Canada, they have a difficult time reporting on figure skating, period. When they do try to put something together, it all falls apart after Chan and Virtue/Moir. They sometimes do well with pairs. Even with a 3rd in SLC and a gold in Nebelhorn, CBC still put the ladies down as not capable of making top 10 in London. The last I saw that the first "C" in CBC was Canadian. Typical 2nd rate reporting regarding figure skating and from CBC in general. Happy TSN/CTV have Skate Canada International. And to leave out competitors on the GP circuit in an article of how Canadians stack up shows the true lack of research into this article. Good luck to Orford and Williams.